Metadata: Collection of documents of the German occupation authorities, 1939–1944
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (+48 22) 827 92 21
- Web address:
- http://www.jhi.pl/
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 312/233
- Title:
- Collection of documents of the German occupation authorities, 1939–1944
- Title (official language):
- Zbiór dokumentów niemieckich władz okupacyjnych 1939–1944
- Creator/accumulator:
- Central Jewish Historical Commission of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland
- Date(s):
- 1939/1944
- Language:
- German
- Polish
- Extent:
- 2 linear metres (157 archival units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The authority of the General Government (Generalgouvernement) was exercised by the Governor-General, the office held throughout the war by Hans Frank. Josef Bühler was appointed head of the Office of the Governor-General, along with his function (from 1940) as State Secretary of the General Government (Leiter der Regierung des Generalgouvernements).
Complemented by post-war transcripts and elaborations, the collection of single documents of the German authorities includes:
1. Documents of the Reich’s central authorities, covering the geographies of the Reich and German-occupied countries. Featured are general ordinances targeted, for the most part, at the Jewish populace: files 1-21.
a collection of ordinances and decrees on Jewry, as published in the Reich’s Journals of Laws, 1941-44;
ordinances of the minister of the interior (der Reichsminister des Inners), dated 31 May 1941, regarding the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in the eastern territories incorporated in the Reich do Rzeszy, z 31.05.1941;
decrees of the head of the SS and the police within the Reich’s interior ministry (der Reichsführer SS und Deutscher Polizei im Reichsministerium des Inners) regarding the Jews, 1939-43;
circulars, ordinances and decrees, guidelines, rules and regulations and correspondence of the head of the security police and security service (der Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und SD) regarding the policies towards the Jews in the occupied areas, 1939-42;
documents of the NSDAP and the Hitlerjugend from Poznan and Łódź, 1941-4;
statistical studies and reports on delivery of tasks;
anti-Jewish propaganda materials.
2. Single documents of German authorities in the occupied areas, concerning Jewish people in several dozen towns and cities:
produced by chancelleries and offices of the next administration tier, extending to the regions of Upper and Lower Silesia (units 26-30);
instructions and dispositions of the General Government’s municipal and county [Kreis] authorities (units 31-35);
correspondence of the head of the district of Lublin and head of the SS and the police for the Lublin district (der Chef des Distrikt Lublin/der SS und Polizeifürer im GG Distrikt Lublin) regarding taking over of Jewish properties, catching those in hiding, employing Jewish workers, other issues: 1942-43;
reports on Operation Reinhard;
records of the Kriminalpolizei in Tarnów, 1942-44;
der Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und SD for Poznan and Łódź: correspondence regarding displacements from the Wartheland, 1939-40 (units 36-41);
official letters of the head of the district of Warsaw (der Chef des GG Distrikt Warschau), 1939-41;
copies of records of the Jürgen Stroop trial, 1951;
instructions, dispositions and circulars of the head of the district of Radom (der Chef des GG Distrikt Radom) and of the SS und Polizeiführer for the district, 1939-43;
official letters of der SS Polizeiführer im Distrikt Galizien;
report of the inspector of the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine, 2 December 1942;
correspondence of the German management of the Bialystok ghetto;
instructions, dispositions and reports of municipal branches of the Labour Office (Arbeitsamt) in Warsaw, Katowice, and Rzeszow;
residual personal documents: Jewish people’s documents are related to settlement of child care, property and assets-related affairs, compliance of a marriage with the Nuremberg Laws (units 130, 133 and 138);
documents of Germans include school certificates, student books and report cards (unit 140), military correspondence and authentications (unit 136) and children’s drawings sent in letters to their fathers (unit 131).
- Archival history:
- This collection of German documents was compiled for research purposes and with a view to Nazi criminals’ trials. Initiated after World War II by the Central Jewish Historical Commission, the collection was subsequently complemented at the Jewish Historical Institute Archive. Most of the documents are copies or transcripts of records from the GKB Archive in Berlin, the State Archives in Warsaw, the Central and District Commissions for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, the Western Institute, Municipal National Councils, Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (U.S. Army) and regional Jewish historical commissions.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
During World War II most of the territory of prewar Poland was designated a separate administrative unit called the General Government (Generalgouvernement). The remainder was included in the Third Reich as the ‘incorporated lands’.
The Governor-General was the chief authority in the General Government, delegating to heads of districts. There were four districts: Krakow, Lublin, Radom and Warsaw; a Galician district was additionally established in 1941. Districts were divided into counties (Kreis) managed by county heads (Kreishauptmann). The police apparatus consisted of the order-keeping police (Orpo), the police (Sipo) and the security service (SD). The criminal police (Kripo) and the secret state police (Gestapo) functioned within the Sipo. Displacements of Jews and Poles into General Government territory and transportations of coerced labourers into the Reich was responsibility of the Central Board of Resettlement (Umwandererzentralstelle). Ordinances determining the situation of the Jewry were issued from the beginning of the war. Confiscations of goods belonging to Jewish residents was supervised by Krakow-based Trust Office (Treuhandstelle für das Generalgouvernement). Poles and Jews were allocated to forced labour via labour offices (Arbeitsamt). Jewish councils of elders – Judenrats – were established; Jewish people were enclosed in ghettos.
The territory incorporated in the Reich was divided into the Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia districts. The remaining Polish areas were included in various provinces of Germany. The posts of Governor(-General) or Super-President, managing the civil administration and reporting to the Ministry of Interior, and Gauleiter, head of the NSDAP, were established. Offices and institutions typically based on SS structures included the Central Trust Office East (Haupttreuhandstelle Ost-HTO), set up in September 1939 by Hermann Göring and tasked with administering annexed areas and management of residents’ property.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bühler, Josef, 1904-1948
- Access, restrictions:
- Digitised documents are accessible in the reading room of the Jewish Historical Institute.
- Finding aids:
- A catalogue in Polish is accessible online.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Agnieszka Reszka; Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma; 2015